VENTURE READY

Venture Ready is the Arizona Commerce Authority’s business mentor program that connects Arizona talent with its incredibly rich resources. The program is part of a collaborative effort to create winning companies while retaining and developing entrepreneurial talent in the state of Arizona.

Venture Ready begins by partnering a company with an Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR). The EIR will coach the company through five panels that focus on intake, marketing, finance, dry run and final/graduation. In each, an entrepreneur pitches its business model to a team of CEOs and professional experts and will receive specific points of feedback that identify gaps and strategic opportunities.

In partnership with statewide organizations and companies, Venture Ready is a connective resource for the Arizona startup community to strengthen Arizona’s innovation ecosystem – ensuring small businesses can expand through all stages of development.

“Venture Ready has been an amazing experience for all of us at HJ3. To have the opportunity to present your business plan several times to established business people with pertinent expertise in marketing, finance and strategy is phenomenal. Each panel session has been a difficult and grueling process that has led us to a larger vision of ourselves and our business. The mentoring sessions have been helpful to clarify the specific next steps required for us to reach our larger vision. As a result, we have progressed from a $50 Million dollar vision to a $1 Billion vision, and we are quickly putting in place a platform to launch to that higher plane. I absolutely believe in the Arizona Commerce Authority and the participants and we all are extremely grateful to have this opportunity. So often government supports large conglomerates and small business and true entrepreneurs get left behind … not in Arizona,” James Butler, CEO, HJ3 Composite Technologies.

“With all talk about missing aspects and challenges of the startup ecosystem, I am very fortunate and humbled to be involved with such a great group of folks who are helping solve it with action. I will be working around the clock to ensure the time, feedback, and resources put in are not wasted. I look forward to making Wholesalefund a success for everyone involved, including the panel and other great local startups who we can lead by example of what a great support system AZ truly has to offer,” Dave Albertson, CEO, Wholesalefund.